Entry #9 is the most appealing out of your submissions. We eventually want to move away from having our full legal name (Foothills Research Institute) in the actual logo and try to solidfy a lettermark built on "fRI". I really like how you kept the lower case f.
The "hill" under neath FRI reminds me of the CGA in Canada
http://www.cga-canada.org/en-ca/Pages/default.aspx I am not sure if this can be tweaked a bit. I do like that it resembles a hill but does so very subtley.
Would it be possible to do a version that has our tagline underneath fRI instead of the logo? and possibly try a grey colour for the "RI" so it reads "f - R.I." instead of "FRI".
Enrty #10 also has appealing elements but I woudl likt to see it as a lettermark instead of a comination wordmark. I woudl also liek to see something other than a circle encapsulating the lettermark.